


Dawn Bleeding Through the Dark

by Castibella_Shipper_of_the_Lord



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Banishing Sigil (Supernatural), Angel Wings, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Castiel's True Form (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Prays to Castiel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Emotionally Hurt Castiel (Supernatural), Episode Fix-it, First Kiss, Fix-It, Illusions, M/M, Or could be a continuation, Post-Episode: s15e18 Despair, Protective Dean Winchester, Rescue Missions, Sigils, The Empty (Supernatural), depending on what happens in ep 20
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27553780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Castibella_Shipper_of_the_Lord/pseuds/Castibella_Shipper_of_the_Lord
Summary: The Empty doesn't view Castiel kindly. Confident that he won't escape again, it finds a way to torment Castiel and exact revenge, while not having to lay a finger on him. All it needs is the angel's own fears.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Kudos: 153





	Dawn Bleeding Through the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all enjoy! Comments would make my day, and if you want to come chat, that's fantastic too! <3  
> (And I promise there's a happy ending, we all deserve it :D)

“Welcome back Castiel. I hope you’ll find your accommodations to your liking.”

First, there was only darkness. Then like dawn bleeding through the gloom of night it retreated.

And he wondered if he’d escaped after all. How foolish he was, thinking the Empty would let him go so easily. Foolish, because though daylight bathed the ground at his feet, it was only the beginning of the game.

***

Daylight disappears, replaced with familiar walls. The shadows seem to flicker out of the corner of his eye.

Castiel blinks, certain he’s missing something. Hadn’t he just been somewhere else?

“After everything. Everything you’ve done. You think we can just say that and what- we live happily ever after?” Dean moves closer, and Castiel takes a step back. Were they talking? Had he missed a whole conversation?

“Dean?” he asks.

Dean lets out a dry chuckle. “Of course. Now you’re going to deny it.” He spins on his heel, heading for the door.

The door.

_Billie. ___

Castiel seizes Dean’s arm before he can grasp the door handle, the force sending the hunter heavily to the floor.

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“What are you doing.” Dean draws an angel blade, scrambling to his feet. “I knew it. I knew you couldn’t change.” 

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“Dean please, Billie will- “ he can’t finish, mind suddenly blank. What was he thinking? Billie wasn’t even out there, where could such a thought have come from.

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“You- “Dean leveled the blade at Castiel’s eyes. “Are losing it. You need to leave now. Pack whatever you have and go. I’m being generous in leaving you alive after everything.”

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“Everything?”

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Dean steps closer, and the familiar green eyes, usually filled with warmth, are colder than Castiel has ever seen them. They gleam with rage and fear. All, he realizes, directed at him. “The hurt you’ve caused my family. All the people I love that are dead because of you, the families you’ve torn apart. Sam, and the pain you’ve put him through. Don’t you remember? Or is that forgettable.”

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“Dean I-“

_____This is wrong, it’s all wrong- ____ _ _ _

“I’m tired of your excuses.”

_______This isn’t real. ____ _ _ _ _ _

“- I’m tired of your lies-“

_________It can’t be. ____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“- and you come through it all to tell me you _love _me?”__

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Castiel falters as if struck. Dean shakes his head, stalking closer. 

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“I’ve changed my mind. Letting you leave is too much of a mercy.”

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“I don’t under-“ he tries to say, before a sudden pain causes him to falter once more. Dean moves back, angel blade now embedded in Castiel’s chest.

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Vision greying, he focuses on Dean’s face as he leans over him. The smile he loves so much appears, a brief glimpse of the man he remembers.

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“Sorry Cas. But I can’t let you hurt anyone I love.”

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Darkness consumes him as Dean Winchester leaves him bleeding on the floor.

***

_Cas. Can you hear me?_

The shadows seem to flicker out of the corner of his eye.

A book slams onto the table in front of him, and he jumps despite himself.

“The longer we take, the farther away that thing gets.” Sam turns to snatch another book, leafing through it.

__

Castiel shakes his head to clear it, squinting at the words on the page. They blur before him, twisting and shifting into an illegible smear.

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“What are you doing?” Sam says, already moved on to another book. “’cause it looks to me like you’re just sitting there. People are dying, try to be more useful.”

 _Please. Just let me know you’re listening._

“I’m sorry,” Castiel murmurs, peering back at the pages. The words refuse to cooperate, evaporating like a dream you struggle to recall upon waking, slipping though his mind.

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“Dean’s right.”

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Castiel glances up at Sam. “About what?”

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“You really don’t care.” Sam doesn’t tear his focus from his book.

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“Of course I care, Sam, how can you say that.”

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“It seems to me, less people would die without you. I mean, the Apocalypse almost came to pass thanks to your intervention.”

___Please Cas. Please. For me._ _ _

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“I made mistakes in the past-“

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“Children make mistakes, Cas.” Dean appears on the bunker stairs, making his way down to where Sam and Castiel are seated. “Mistakes are spilling glitter on the floor, tracking mud inside. You haven’t made mistakes. You’ve done unforgivable things.”

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___Whatever you’re seeing, it’s not real. ___ __

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“Luckily, Sam and I found a solution.”

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On a whim, Castiel glances down at his book, only for the words to sharpen. The descriptions reveal sigils, and his heart clenches in apprehension. “No.”

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Dean grabs a book from the table, uncovering a bloody sigil. Before he can rise, the older Winchester slams his hand on the sigil, runes flaring into to life before fading away.

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A wave of agony assaults him, wrenching him to the floor. It reaches through his vessel, straight to his true form, twisting feathers, tearing at his wings.

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___Dammit. That’s it I’m doing something._ __

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“Please Dean,” Castiel gasps out, the sigil binding his wings keeping his firmly anchored. “Don’t do this.”

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“Cas!”

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A hand touched his shoulder, causing him to jerk back. The movement sends another wave of agony through his wings, making him bite back a curse.

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“Cas, look at me.”

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Another face swims into view. Kind green eyes, reflecting the selfless soul within.

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“Dean?”

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“I’m here, this isn’t real.” Dean, his Dean. Behind him still stands his doppelganger, hand pressed to the activated sigil.

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“I wonder,” the doppelganger says, smirking at Castiel as if the other Dean weren’t there. “what would happen if I activated a banishing sigil at the same time?”

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Castiel inhaled sharply, a sentiment echoed by the Dean at his shoulder.

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“My wings…” he breathed. “They’d be torn from my back.”

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“Cas, just try to wake up, okay. The Empty is the one doing this, they can’t hurt you.” His Dean’s voice began to leak desperation, as the doppelganger methodically painted a new sigil.

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Castiel shakes his head. “I don’t know how.”

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The sigil is complete, the last smear of red staining the table.

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His Dean leans closer, hand fitting on Castiel’s arm, kneeling in front of him.

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Runes activate and the sigil flares, sending a concussive wave over both Castiel and Dean.

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He feels Dean’s lips meet his as all goes white, wings stretching to their limit. Bracing for pain, he only feels warmth. Suddenly, the cold stone at his knees is replaced with soft grass.

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“Cas?”

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He opens his eyes to sunlight, and the pressure of Dean’s grip keeping him stable. The older Winchester smiles, and Castiel wonders how he ever doubted. The doppelganger could never recreate the brilliance of that soul, of those eyes.

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This is his Dean.

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He smiles back, and Dean’s mouth is on his again, but instead of the desperation from before, it’s like coming home. All the words that went unsaid, all the things he longed to say all those years ago. To the Righteous Man, the human he’d rebel for again, even if it meant his life. Even everything he hadn’t said, in those last moments before the Empty took him away. If the Empty chose to take him again, take his wings, in that moment it would have been worth it.

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They part, Castiel clutching Dean’s jacket with one hand, refusing to let go.

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Then Dean opens his mouth. And he says the one thing he hadn’t had the chance to say.

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“I love you too.”

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First, there was only darkness. Then like dawn bleeding through the gloom of night it retreated. All that was left was light.

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**Author's Note:**

> Edit: had a bit of a formatting fail. Some of Dean's prayers refused to cooperate and italicize, so I apologize for that! I hope you enjoyed anyway :)


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